Why grocery shopping online could be bad for your health

By Kimberly Gillan| 2 years ago

The convenience of shopping from your computer could backfire on your health.

Online shopping might seem like a boon for time-poor individuals who get their food dropped off at their door, but the major supermarkets have come under fire from dietitians for not providing adequate nutritional information on their websites.

When you're shopping in store you can pick up any packaged food and flip it over to read the ingredients list and nutritional information panel to give you an idea of the sugar, salt, fat, protein and kilojoule count of the product to help you make an informed choice.

There are also easy-to-spot food star labels that can help you make comparisons between products.

But shopping online doesn't provide the same wealth of nutritional information. To date, Woolworths does not provide nutritional information online and Coles only provides it for branded products – anything with a "Coles" label doesn't list it online.

"While in-store shoppers can readily check the nutrition info panels, online shoppers are not given this option for many of the in-house brands," Allan Borushek, registered dietitian and author of Allan Borushek's Pocket Calorie and Fat Counter,told Coach.

"The non-availability of nutritional data online disadvantages online shoppers – particularly those who are unable to physically shop in-store."

And there's more to food labelling than just looking out for kilojoules to help aid weight loss.

"People may they have clinical reasons to check food allergens/additives, sodium for hypertension, carbohydrates and fibre for insulin requirements or types of fat for cholesterol," Borushek says.

Borushek says that research shows that people are more likely to make healthier choices when they have access to nutritional information.

"American research on fast-food choices also shows the value of calorie counts alongside each food item on the actual menu," he says.

A Woolworths spokesperson told Coach that they have plans to introduce nutritional information online in the coming months.

Coles told Coach they plan to add their "house brand" nutritional information to their website in the coming months too.

In the meantime, Borushek says customers either need to shop in-store to make comparisons between similar products, or go to third-party sites like his CalorieKing website, which provides nutritional information on most Australian foods available at supermarkets and restaurants.

"CalorieKing currently has to send our food database researchers into stores to gather the missing nutritional information on in-house brands, which is then made available free on our website and apps," he says.

Woolworths suggests customers contact their customer contact centre for nutritional information about their products, but Borushek says that's a lot of extra work for customers.